Horse comparisons

As I've been collecting this project, I've dealt with many different horse sculpts from a variety of manufacturers. It occurred to me that a quick overview might be handy for potential collectors. So, here is a selection of Games Workshop, Warlord Games and Wargames Factory miniatures, from biggest to smallest.

First off are the Games Workshop horses, because they are the biggest. The unpainted monstrosity is a Warhammer Empire Pistolier horse. It's big even by the heroic scale standards of the current Warhammer Fantasy range, and as you can see, it's downright monstrous compared to a typical historical miniature. This horse is only available as part of the pistoliers box, though bitz sellers or ebay might provide them without riders.

The painted horse is the "generic" Warhammer horse. They used to be nigh-ubiquitous throughout all the horse-riding races in the Warhammer World, but as ranges get updated they are more and more replaced by army-specific sculpts. They are, however, available for order without riders here. This horse is about as tall as the largest historical horses, but a bit beefier. Non-GW riders may not fit well.

The unpainted plastic one above is a Perry Miniatures ACW horse. It is definitely the biggest non-fantasy horse I've encountered. I do not know if all Perry horses are this big, the ACW kit is the only Perry cavalry I've gotten. The saddle-bags and bedrolls can interfere with rider sculpts, and also may not be period-appropriate, but the horse itself looks great. They share a sprue with their ACW riders, so are not available separately.

The painted horse here (with rider) is a Warlord Games plastic horse. These are provided with every plastic Pike & Shotte cavalry kit the company produces, and they also accompany the otherwise-metal dragoons. They are also available on their own here, and may be the most generically useful horse for the time period. Note that the sprue contains separate holstered pistols, which is handy.

The metal horse accompanies the new Warlord Games Winged Hussars. A bit slimmer than all the previous horses I've covered so far, it's the first creditable "warm-" or "hot-blooded" horse yet. They aren't available separately, but they're pretty enough that I figured I'd throw one in anyway.

The next three are all from Wargames Factory. The first is from the War of Spanish Succession cavalry box. They are not available separately, but the box is chock-full of 18th-century bits, and worth investigating if you like conversions.

The second horse is basically the same size and build, and it is available separately here. It's also super cheap, but the downside is that it has no saddle or bridle or anything sculpted on. Super handy if you want a herd of feral horses, or a base for a centaur kitbash, but probably not great for cavalry unless you have even more time on your hands than I do.

Finally, we have the Wargames Factory ancients pony. I got mine from the Celtic Cavalry box, but they are also available separately here. The tack might be a bit anachronistic, and they don't come with saddles when bought on their own, but for skirmishing light cavalry you could do worse.

In conclusion, here is the biggest horse next to the smallest horse, just for funzies. Also our faithful scale reference musketeer, who has probably had enough of horse butts for one day. Poor guy.

Hmm. I forgot to include an Assault Group horse or a Conquest Games horse. The former is equivalent to the naked WGF horse, the later is equivalent to the WG hussar horse.

Feel free to leave questions in the comments.